Sunday, August 14, 2016

THE SUNDAY POST #73

Blogger was not posting images. On Wednesday when I posted my Anne Of Green Gables Wrap-Up half the images were gone and when I posted my Top Five Friday it put zero images in the post, but they are all there in the draft. Yesterday it started putting the garbage code in the html again and I had different fonts, font sizes, and colors scattered through my The Sunday Post. I was disgusted because this hasn't happened in a while. I can't use the back arrow because if I do it puts the previous post there and the draft post disappears. I have been saving the html to a notebook just in case. My Kindle updated and there has been all sorts of shenanigans with that, too, and our internet connection has been going on and off since yesterday afternoon. It has been the perfect blogging storm! This Sunday post took hours and hours to finish. Ugh.
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Tell Me Tuesday has a new header.

I am trying to convert all of my post headers to black and white except for The Sunday Post.

I want to tell you about Jani Lane who passed away five years ago on August 11, 2011, at the age of 47, from alcohol poisoning. In real life he was a kindhearted goofball.

JANI LANE 1988

Some people were trading personal "Jani Stories" on my friend's Facebook on Friday, and it made me think of two. My sister's story would be that instead of having pie and coffee with the "grown-ups" (me, my son's Godmother, and Warrant's road manager) Jani took my sister Aurie (13), and his two little metal protégés we were visiting (12 & 14), out to the road manager's car and played the final mix CD of Warrant's first album for them. The kids were in the clouds that they were the first non-business people to hear it.

My story is the first time I met this wonderful person I had just gotten through eating greasy pizza and had licked my fingers (really well, ha ha) and when I was introduced he stuck out his hand to shake, and I told him I couldn't shake his hand because I had just licked mine, so he proceded to lick his hand (really well) and re-offered it to me. We shook hands and then talked about Chevies vs. Fords because there was a classic Mustang parked behind a classic Corvette right outside the pizzeria window.

I know the video below has lousy audio and picture resolution (funny how cellphones take better video than camcorders did in 1991), but I wanted to post this one because... 1. Heaven is my favorite Warrant song (Jani called it The Prom Song). 2. It is personal footage and at 1:53 you can see him point, wave and sing "Hi, La La" (proof that La La is my real knickname, ha ha) 3. Live footage always conveys truer personality. He sincerely adored his fans and friends with his entire heart. 4. This was the last time I saw him perform live and the time we spent after the show was the last time I spoke with him other than a couple of times someone handed him the phone for quick "Hi, how are you"s. Motherhood took me in a very different direction in my life and our paths never crossed again.

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I felt horrible as I watched him disintegrate on reality tv in 2005, but thought that butting in, other than a couple of calls to mutual friends, was overstepping my bounds. I wish Facebook had been more popular with us oldsters back then because I believe if we had been able to gather together a group of people who were dedicated to saving Jani the human being, and not the "rockstar", he might still be alive today. I have seen many people say he lost the battle with his demons, but those demons were spawned by an industry that made him feel his only worth in the music business was as a young swaggering star with a full head of hair, and big-breasted women hanging on his arm. He had continued to write some of his bluesy acoustic songs and they were wonderful. It is too bad he had surrounded himself with enabling people who couldn't have cared less about his current music, and only cared about his past "celebrity".▪▪▪

So here is the Jani Lane I knew playing music for the fans he adored in 1991. (the video does get brighter after the first verse)

WARNING: You can hear me say, "What the f@#k!" and, "F@#k, get out of the way!" so if you are offended, I truly apologize and I hope you still love me. I was six months pregnant and I had to climb all the way up and sit on a hard concrete spotlight ledge to film, and some girls climbed up onto the top steps and got in my way. I was cranky. Okay? Heh heh. I don't swear anymore (much). Are we still friends?

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Here is the MTV video with good audio...

Here are the lyrics if they weren't clear in the videos...

HEAVEN

I've got a picture of your house

And you're standing by the door.

It's black and white and faded,

And it's looking pretty worn.

See the factory that I worked

Silhouetted in the back.

The memories are gray but man they're really coming back.

I don't need to be the king of the world

As long as I'm the hero of this little girl

Heaven isn't too far away

Closer to it everyday

No matter what your friends might say

How I love the way you move

And the sparkle in your eyes

There's a color deep inside them

Like blue suburban skies

When I come home late at night

And you're in bed asleep

I wrap my arms around you

So I can feel you breathe

I don't need to be a superman

As long as you will always be my biggest fan

Heaven isn't too far away

Closer to it everyday

No matter what your friends might say

We'll find our way, yeah

Now the lights are going out,

Along the boulevard

Memories come rushing back and makes it pretty hard

I've got nowhere left to go

And no one really cares

I don't know what to do

But I'm never giving up on you.

Heaven isn't too far away

Closer to it every day

ohhhh ohhh

No matter what your friends say

I know we're gonna find a way.

◽◽◽

I wish he had felt this way about himself.
RIP, Jani. 1964-2011
You had a beautiful soul.

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Hello! I am a 59 year old reader of books, many of which are YA, and literacy volunteer. I am retired from the music business, have a 25 year old son at university, believe in ghosts, and love a couple of martinis on Friday nights.

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